Download Neat Image user guide

User Guide
Neat Image plug-in for Photoshop (Win)
4.2. Running Neat Image on a sample image
You can download a test-kit prepared to help you start using Neat Image plug-in:
http://www.neatimage.net/files/Testkit5.zip, 250KB. Please download and unzip it to a new folder on
the hard disk. The test-kit contains a sample image: SampleImage.jpg. This image is a part of typical
photo taken with a digital camera. The detailed information about the test image is available in the
SampleImageInfo.txt file.
Please go through the stages below to see how the image can be improved by Neat Image:
Stage 1. Open the sample image in Photoshop and invoke Neat Image
1.
Open the sample image (SampleImage.jpg) in Photoshop;
You will see that there is strong noise in the image, especially in the sky area (use zoom and
scroll to better see it). This is the typical noise produced by a digital camera. The task of Neat
Image is to reduce this noise.
2.
Select the Filter > Neat Image > Reduce Noise… menu in Photoshop to open Neat Image plug-in.
Stage 2. Load the sample noise profile in Neat Image plug-in
To reduce noise in the image Neat Image generally needs a noise profile describing the noise properties
of the image. For this sample image, we have prepared such a noise profile in the test-kit in advance:
SampleProfile.dnp. Using this profile, Neat Image can efficiently reduce the noise in the image.
1.
In the Device Noise Profile tab
button);
(the Load Profile
2.
Then in the Load Device Noise Profile dialog, navigate to the folder where the noise profile has
been unzipped and select the SampleProfile.dnp file.
, click
Now the sample noise profile is loaded and Neat Image is almost ready to filter the image. Usually, you
would adjust the filter settings at this stage. To make things easier for the first run of Neat Image, we
have prepared a sample preset with “good” settings to process the sample image.
Stage 3. Load the sample filter preset in Neat Image plug-in
1.
Switch to the Noise Filter Settings tab
button) in the Filter Settings box;
and click
(the Load Filter
Preset
2.
Then in the Load Filter Preset dialog, navigate to the folder where the sample filter preset has
been unzipped and select the SamplePreset.nfp file.
Now the sample filter preset is loaded and the filter settings are adjusted to process the sample image.
Stage 4. Apply the filter to the image
1.
Click
in the bottom of the plug-in window and wait until the image processing is
completed. Processing may take a few seconds. After that the filtered image is displayed in
Photoshop. Notice that the noise – especially in the sky – has been significantly reduced while
the real image details have been preserved.
Please be aware that the sample noise profile and sample filter preset supplied with the test-kit are
suitable only for images taken with that particular digital camera working in that particular mode. Neat
Image can perform similar noise reduction on images captured or acquired by any other camera (or
scanner) working in any mode. To be able to do that Neat Image needs device noise profiles that
describe the noise characteristics of those devices. The software can build these profiles on the fly using
the Auto Profile function. Also, you can find ready-made noise profiles for many cameras and scanners in
the Profiles section of the Neat Image web page:
http://www.neatimage.com/win/photoshop/profiles.html
The next sections – Filtration process details, page 9, and Device noise profiles, page 21,– contain
detailed descriptions of the filtration and profiling processes. There are also examples of profiling and
filtration in the Neat Image web page:
http://www.neatimage.com/win/photoshop/examples.html
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© 1999-2014 by Neat Image team, ABSoft. All rights reserved.
26-Sep-14